BizTalk EDI test and production Environment setup

Question

Currently, I have setup BizTalk server for few Parties for EDI communication in production.

Note: there is third party tool in place which is transferring EDI over the network (i.e. Datatrans).

Now, I would like to setup test environment where I can have separate locations for sending & receiving test edi.

Kindly suggest, what is the best way to setup test Environment in above case?

Answer 1

You haven't mentioned whether you have a separate test environment available, so I would suggest one of the two following options:

1. Establish a separate test environment and deploy your (current production) solution to this environment to be used purely for testing. EDI messages can be received and sent from the local file system to mimic your third party Datatrans software, or via any other protocol you see fit (e.g. FTP). Having a test environment is good practice full stop and reduces the risk of you breaking your production environment while testing a change.
2. Setup test Trading Partners in your production environment and route these messages to a pickup location that Datatrans isn't monitoring.

I would highly suggest option 1 as testing on your production environment is never a good thing (apart from a small subset of cases).